JMCCI launches beginner's forwarding course

IT'S BACK to basics after 17 years of training courses presented by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A beginner's course in freight industry training is to be introduced in the second quarter of this year. "We've concentrated on the people already in the business field in the past and find that there are more and more just starting out who have little or no knowledge of the requirements of the industry," says membership services manager Joan Warburton-McBride. "Our importer and exporter courses have been very successful for the past 17 years, and we found that there was a big increase in enrolments during the second half of last year, obviously because of the upturn in international trade to and from this country. But we were turning away newcomers to the industry who didn't have the experience to cope with the standard of lectures. "What has emerged is that there is a desperate need for a suitable course for those entering the forwarding field. The new course, which will last four to five days, will cover the important basic issues such as incoterms, payment procedures, documentation, marketing and an introduction to the top players in the international arena. "All modules will be completed with practical, in-depth programmes, where students will be required to complete full documentation and fulfil all the requirements of payments while answering an incoterm test. "This last step is, in fact, more important than all the chalk and talk side of the sessions. It's at the hands-on stage that the beginner will really learn the ropes." JMCCI is also planning a series of workshops on trade agreements for established operators, details of which are to be disclosed shortly. Companies don't do enough to maximise opportunities such as government assistance, says Warburton-McBride, and this will be the target of these seminars.